Why Women's Colleges Are Still Relevant

Kateri Benjamin, a 2009 graduate of Barnard College, hadn't planned to attend an all-women's school, but the high-caliber academics, sophisticated student body and opportunity to live in New York beckoned. Still, her friends didn't make her choice easy. "They said, 'Are you a feminist? All feminists are lesbians. You're going to come back a lesbian,'" laughs the 22-year-old New Jersey native.

"I looked up 'feminist' in the dictionary and it said that feminists believe women are equal to men," says Benjamin, confident and poised in a fitted red sweater and black pencil skirt. "That's me." Benjamin, who's already landed a full-time job in public relations, is thrilled with her college choice. "It's the best decision I've made," she says.

Decades after Smith College and Mt. Holyoke became symbols of radical feminism, women's colleges are still thought of as academic convents. Susan Lennon of the Women's College Coalition (WCC), which counts 53 public and private, independent and church-related colleges in its membership, acknowledges these schools have image work to do.

"We still face the idea that there aren't any boys" in an all-women's college experience, says Lennon. "But it's a different world now. Most of these colleges are part of a consortium." Students at Bryn Mawr College outside of Philadelphia, for example, can take classes at nearby co-ed Swarthmore College, Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania. Wellesley College students can cross-register at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or even earn a double degree: a B.A. from Wellesley and an S.B. degree from MIT over the course of five years.

But as Benjamin learned, the hardest sell is often to the prospective student's family and friends. Some parents may push their daughter to follow family tradition and attend an institution like Notre Dame. Her friends may all be headed to in-state colleges. And, like Benjamin's pals, they may assume that she'll miss out on precious co-ed experiences like dating and parties by living separately from men--or, worse, wilt in a hothouse of radical isolation.

Women's colleges do, of course, offer women's studies programs and feature lots of politically active students, not to mention as extensive an array of other majors and student groups as most mixed-sex colleges. Alumnae, however, say their experiences gave them a singular benefit: learning and living among a select group of intelligent, ambitious women.

"Women's colleges tend to attract a very competitive and driven student base, and that's the group you are surrounding yourself with during these critical years," says Valerie Saunders, a 40-year-old Smith College grad who owns a successful photo agency in Jersey City, N.J. "That's where you are developing your work ethic and your first goals as an adult."

A recent study funded by the WCC bears this out. The report, released in March 2008, surveyed 1,000 women's-college alumnae and their female peers from liberal arts colleges or public flagships. In several key areas, women's colleges performed higher, including in the proportion of entrepreneurs produced and leadership training received. Additionally, far more graduates of women's colleges than of co-ed liberal arts colleges (66% vs. 55%) said the reputation of their school played a major role in getting into graduate school or obtaining their first job.

Often times prospective students don't realize the potential benefits of a college that focuses exclusively on fostering the ambitions of young women, say several alumnae. At a co-ed university there may be pressure to impress guys instead of concentrating on a career or personal development, for example. Tara Roberts, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke in Massachusetts, discovered talents that she was completely unaware of in high school.

"I became a leader in college. I'm not sure if that would have been so automatic in a co-ed setting," says Roberts, noting she would have had to compete with men for an edge. "I wasn't really a leader in high school." Popularity at a women's college isn't about clothing or hairstyles, she says. "I found you became popular or cool because of your convictions, your passion and your actions," she says.

So should your daughter or niece apply to Smith? Not necessarily. Even alumnae caution that the single-sex school experience is not for everyone."It attracts a certain type of woman," says Benjamin. "Not as much of a partier. Not so much the frat/sorority crowd, more intellectual."

Sabrina Shange Amani, 40, a Spelman College alumna, cautions that women's colleges aren't non-stop utopias of support and love; as in co-ed institutions, there are domineering or difficult people there too. "They still take over the conversations and try to lead the group or convince everyone," she says. "But feelings about them are more about their style of operation and less about them being out of their place or acting like men."

Amani transferred to the traditionally black women's college in Atlanta after two years at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In high school, she says, she "had no intention" of attending a women's college. "I was afraid it would be too socially limiting," says the Jamaica native, who works as a content developer in Santa Monica, Calif.

As it turns out, it was UMass that was stifling. She says she found the academics unchallenging and felt the 25,000-strong student body was too large and unwieldy to offer the energy and engagement she was thirsty for.

Spelman offered its own surprises, but had a more varied student body than she expected. "When I went to Spelman I thought there would be all these active, ready-to-change-the-world women," she says. "Instead, I found a group as diverse as any other. Some wanted to get a degree to be a housewife, some wanted to own the world, some wanted to save the world and so many other shades in between."